Queens residents and workers celebrated Father’s Day with a rally at the Queens Center Mall to highlight the need for living wages, community space and organizing rights at the publicly subsidized poverty wage center. The community is demanding that the mall’s owner, the Macerich Company, provide community benefits and require their tenants to pay a living wage and respect their employees’ right to organize a union without threat or intimidation—in exchange for the more than $100 million in tax breaks Macerich receives.

While Macerich pulls in millions of dollars in profits, retail workers at the mall are struggling to make ends meet for themselves and for their families. These Queens workers are not alone. According to a recent Fiscal Policy Institute report, three in five New York retail workers earn an hourly wage of $13 or less, and 44% earn less than $10 an hour.

The action took place on Father’s Day to tell Macerich that fathers, and all working families, deserve a living wage. For more information, visit www.queenscentermall.org.